Mikel Arteta revealed Eddie Nketiah forced his way into the Arsenal starting lineup with how he trained ahead of the win over Nottingham Forest.
The Gunners got their Premier League season up and running with a 2-1 victory in north London, surviving some nervy late moments after Taiwo Awoniyi halved the deficit in the final ten minutes.
Nketiah opened the scoring with the help of a slight deflection, before Bukayo Saka added a stunning second, as the Arsenal striker was recalled to lead the line at the Emirates.
Nketiah was dropped to the bench for the Community Shield against Manchester City, with Kai Havertz moved up front, but the 24-year-old took his chance against Forest as he stepped up to fill the void left by the injured Gabriel Jesus.
“He was a player who was so disappointed not to play the final in the absence of Gabi,” Arteta said of Nketiah.
“What he did was he came on the field in the final and changed the game. That’s number one. The second one was the way he was training this week was saying ‘gaffer, if you’re not playing me you are blind’.
“A lot of players come and say ‘oh why am I not playing’ and you have to try to explain, other players come and say ‘these are the reasons why I deserve to play’. This is exactly what Eddie does.”
Gabriel Martinelli was the only one of Arsenal’s front three not to score but he did play a role in Nketiah’s opener, producing a brilliant piece of skill to flick the ball inside for the Englishman to fire home.
However, it was Martinelli’s work off the ball that particularly pleased his manager, with Arteta seeing a marked difference from the performance in the Emirates Cup ten days ago.
“He needs to be alive, he needs to be energetic and go for it,” the Arsenal boss said.
“And then something I saw today that I really liked and I didn’t like so much when we played Monaco two weeks ago is that when he gave the ball away how he tracked back.
“This is the defining moment because when Gabi’s doing that backwards then forwards he’s one of the best players and one of the most dangerous. When plays a different rhythm, no.”
